


Homesickness

by winryofresembool



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dorks in Love, F/M, Fluff, Homesickness, Hurt/Comfort, again possibly canon divergent because i only have a vague idea of the events of toa, and tbh i prefer it that way, post HOO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23636671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winryofresembool/pseuds/winryofresembool
Summary: Calypso gets overwhelmed by the modern world. Leo tries to comfort her.
Relationships: Calypso/Leo Valdez
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	Homesickness

**Author's Note:**

> When I posted the previous fic of mine, I was genuinely thinking that the next one would be an FMA fic, but nope, that didn't happen (teehee an accidental reference to a... pretty great scene, dare I say). These two have just been wanting to get written lately :'D So, my FMA readers (if you opened this), I hope you can forgive me, and my new HoO peeps, I hope you enjoy! As usual, comments are loved and they /really/ do motivate me to write more! And thank you for the nice comments in the previous fic, I was happy to see that I'm not the only person caring about Caleo!

She thought she probably shouldn’t have been that upset, but she couldn’t help herself.

Earlier that day, Calypso and Leo had gone to Manhattan to do some shopping for Leo’s newest mechanic project and seeds for a garden Calypso was hoping to start. It hadn’t been the first time she had visited a big city with him (after all, they had made plenty of stops in Europe while on their way back to Camp Half-Blood), but unfortunately it was nearing Christmas, meaning the streets were even busier now with people buying gifts to their loved ones. 

At one point, while searching for a specific hardware store, the couple also passed the Empire State Building. Leo informed Calypso that that’s where the Olympians lived these days, but she had a hard time believing it. Had the gods really abandoned their mountain in Greece for some manmade… thing in this concrete jungle? Her opinion didn’t really change much when Leo revealed that Percy’s girlfriend Annabeth was the person behind the modern design inside Olympus. The two girls were acting fairly amicably towards each other at the camp, and Calypso’s feelings towards Percy had died a long time ago, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel a twinge of jealousy when the person she now loved talked about her in a praising manner. And when Calypso had complained about the lack of plants in the city, Leo had promised to take her to Central Park to see some trees but even that had turned out to be a letdown, with so many people rushing from one spot to another, spreading trash around, and so on. 

Overall, Calypso was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the time the couple finally returned back to Camp Half-Blood with their purchases. However, instead of settling down to some quiet place where she could have heard her own thoughts, Leo decided he was in the mood for having something called a “Mario Kart” race with his friends in Chiron’s office, and she didn’t really have a choice except to follow him there. 

When the others heard that Calypso had never played the game, they all volunteered to teach her how it works, Leo probably the most enthusiastically. She didn’t really see what the fun in that game really was, though, with some weird looking characters on that flat screen they called the TV just knocking each other out of the road and trying to be the fastest. Having been stranded alone on an island for three millennia, she had forgotten what competing felt like, and turned out she had a hard time trying to watch the screen and using the controller at the same time. 

“I give up!” she finally threw the controller on Leo’s lap and her hands in the air with frustration after four 8th places in a row, standing up, ready to leave. 

“But Sunshine, we barely even started this game! C’mon, you’ll learn!” Leo tried to make her stay, but with bad success.

“I don’t think so,” Calypso growled, throwing her ponytail behind her shoulder. “I’m going now.”

“Where?” Leo’s grin started faltering when he realized that she had gotten legitimately upset about something, which probably was more than just the stupid game.

“Somewhere! I don’t know!” was the last thing she yelled before she banged the door shut. 

“Did I do something wrong again?” Leo looked at his friends with confusion as an awkward silence fell into the room. 

Piper was the first to reply. “I can’t say I know her that well yet but to me she seemed kinda upset already when you came here. Did something happen during your shopping trip?”

“Nothing special…” Leo tried to recall the events of that day in his brain to figure out what he might have missed. “She seemed a bit weirded out by the amount of people and the gigantic buildings but that’s all?”

“Hmm…” Piper hummed, thoughtfully. “What if she isn’t adjusting to this world quite as well as she might tell you? I mean, it’s a huge change from the lonely island life, and… I don’t know, I remember being so confused after finding out we are demigods and this must be even weirder for her. Maybe she just went through too much for one day. You should probably talk to her.”

Leo knew she was right, but that didn’t help him much. “But you know I’m better with machines than people… or ex titans. What should I tell her?”

“Just listen to her and be there for her,” Piper answered, getting approving nods from the rest of the group.

Leo rolled his eyes. “You make it sound so easy. But fine, I’ll try.”

…

Finding Calypso didn’t end up being too hard for Leo. He knew her well enough to know she’d probably gone to some quiet place, and considering they were at Camp Half-Blood, the closest place with no people around would be the forest where Festus lived. And more specifically, a certain spot there where she had watched Leo build various projects: the bunker number 9. 

“Calypso?” he called out to get her attention, for once not using his usual nickname for her. She was sitting outside the bunker, petting Festus on his snout affectionately. Leo had a feeling that they had been communicating before he had arrived. She had learned some Morse Code from him and gotten pretty good at interpreting the dragon’s messages.

“Why did you follow me?” Calypso asked, half angry, half… relieved? that he did care enough to go after her. 

Leo got his defensive mode on. “Because, you stupid, I worry about you. I wanna know why you reacted like that.”

“This… isn’t something you can fix,” Calypso said, her dark eyes looking almost as bottomless as Tartarus. “You wouldn’t possibly understand.”

“Try me, Sunshine,” Leo challenged her, his brown eyes reflecting the fire he held in front of him to give their surroundings some light. 

The ex-titaness sighed, the anger in her voice dissipating and changing into sadness. “You… you have grown in this world. You’re used to everything you see around you. For you seeing these… computers and TV:s and video games and… everything is a normal thing. You know how it all works. And you know you belong here. If I’m honest… sometimes I don’t know where I belong. I’m not a demigod. Or a regular person. Just a mortal ex-titaness who isn’t even from this era!”

Leo tried to keep his voice cool despite the worry starting to burn inside him. If she was unhappy, it was all his fault because he was the one who had broken her curse. “Calypso, hear me out. You are right that I don’t have firsthand experience on being an immortal who was imprisoned for thousands of years. But – and you can call me an idiot for saying this - I may still understand you better than you realize.”

“What do you mean?” Calypso asked incredulously. 

“Two of my friends, Hazel and Nico, who you already met, are from another era as well. Sure, not as far as you are, but it took them a while to get used to it as well. If you want to, I’m sure Hazel would like to talk to you about it. She’s in Camp Jupiter right now but we expect her to visit soon.”

"I suppose that wouldn't hurt..."Calypso said a bit reluctantly, but before she had time to say anything else, Leo continued.

“AND when it comes to me belonging here… that hasn’t been the case always.” He hadn’t talked about that side of his life a lot to anyone, and Calypso knew better than to interrupt him. “You know I’ve basically been a runaway since I was 8. I arrived here a bit over a year ago and didn’t know I was a demigod until that day. I just always thought I was just weird that way. I was this strange kid who couldn’t find his place anywhere and who also happened to kill his own mother. Back then I didn’t know it had just been Gaea’s plot and I felt SO guilty all the time. And even when I got here and found new friends and the truth behind everything… I always felt my friends were closer with each other than with me. And when we discovered that one of us had to die in order to destroy Gaea, I think I immediately knew it was gonna be me. Um, anyway, my point is, I know what it feels like to be an outsider.”

Calypso had to admit she hadn’t thought of it from that point of view. “I never realized…”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” Leo waved his hand, trying to lighten the mood in his typical way. “It’s all good now. But I want you to know that you can talk to me about that stuff. I can’t promise to never make any snarky comments, though, because that is what comes with this package, but I can try.”

Calypso couldn’t help but smile just a bit at his attempt at joking. 

“I think I’m just missing home,” she admitted finally, giving Festus a pat on the side of his head, and the metal dragon purred like a cat. “Which is probably weird considering that I was imprisoned there, but… I guess I was so used to it. It was nice and safe there, and I really enjoyed working at my garden…This forest is probably the closest I can get to nature here…”

“Hey! I just got an idea!” Leo stopped her track of thoughts, snapping his fingers excitedly. “C’mon, you are gonna want to see this. Festus, get ready to fly!”

…

About an hour later, Leo, Calypso and Festus landed on a stranded island somewhere south to New York. It wasn’t as big as Ogygia had been, the trees on the island were pines instead of palm trees, and the weather was rather cold considering it was late November (Calypso was glad she had her pink coat and a fire-starter as her boyfriend), but it was still the closest you could get to Calypso’s home island in that area. She closed her eyes for a moment, just listening to the sound of waves, feeling the autumn breeze and smelling the salty ocean air and picturing she was probably somewhere thousands and thousands of miles away.

“If it was any warmer, I could picture myself being on Ogygia,” she sighed contently. "How did you know about this place?"

"I was just flying around with Festus one day and thought it looked like a nice place," Leo shrugged, not revealing that he had actually had her on his mind when finding it. 

"Oh. Okay."

Leo let Calypso have a quiet moment for herself, but finally he couldn’t keep his mouth shut anymore.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, I guess so.” Calypso nodded, pushing a strand of her hair behind the ear. 

“Do you regret leaving your home? And leaving your immortality behind?”

“Some moments are harder than some others. Like the one you just witnessed,” Calypso admitted. After considering his question a bit, she continued: “But… no. I don’t think so. I’m glad you did what you did and I’m grateful to see all the new places and learn new things every day. It’s just, getting used to all this takes time, and you and your friends have your own community, almost like a family… I don’t have anything like that.”

“But you have me!” Leo exclaimed, pointing at himself dramatically. “The greatest mechanic and funniest guy of his time! What else could you possibly need?”

Calypso couldn’t help but laugh at her boyfriend’s dorkiness. She pushed his arm gently, saying: “Nothing, clearly.”

“Seriously, though,” Leo continued, “I think my friends do like you – yes, even Annabeth, she knows you only have eyes for me…” Calypso rolled her eyes “… and you know, I’ve been looking up some places where we could start up our business – Leo and Calypso’s garage, auto repair and mechanical monsters - the one we talked about back at Ogygia. I think I found one cool place in Indianapolis, which we could go see once we are done with our world tour – if you want to, of course. And we could start a community of our own there.” When he finished, his hands were tying and untying his tool belt as a nervous reaction, and Calypso thought his cheeks were unusually red as well, as if he was overheating.

“First of all, I can’t believe you’ve been thinking about all that… and you still remembered your plans from that time…” Calypso said, not quite able to hide the fact that she was feeling emotional. “As for your question, yes, I think I’d like that. You know, going to see that place with you.”

Leo looked visibly relieved by her answer. “Awesome! And hey, for a future reference, if there’s something you don’t want to do or something’s bothering you, believe me or not, I’d like to know. I’m the one who dragged you into this world, I feel I’m responsible if something goes wrong.”

“No, Leo, I wanted to leave. But saying that is awfully considerate of you.” Calypso squeezed his hand reassuringly.

“Guess I have my moments,” he smirked. “That’s probably why the girls can’t…”

He was stopped by her lips on his, demanding but soft at the same time. Leo looked at her completely stunned for a moment before burying his hands in her long hair and responding to her kiss.

“Know when to stop, Repair Boy.”

Leo couldn’t help but smirk at her.

“If that’s how you punish me, I don’t think I will stop any time soon.” 

“Jerk,” Calypso said but kissed him again, feeling his smile on her lips.

Some time (and quite a lot of making out) later, the two of them were lying in the grass, staring at the dark night sky with Festus as their pillow.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen the stars this bright… Near Camp Half-Blood, all the lights and the pollution make seeing them hard.” Calypso noted.

“I haven’t really thought of it, but you’re right,” Leo replied. “Hey, look!” He pointed at something above him. “That’s the star that was named after me, Leo.”

Calypso looked at him, unimpressed. “Are you sure it wasn’t the other way around? That YOU were named after that star?”

“No, clearly it’s there in honor of me, the great Leo Valdez who sacrificed himself to save the world from the Dirt Face and found Ogygia the second time!”

“You know, for a dead person you’re awfully full of confidence,” Calypso laughed, making Leo look at her with a sad puppy expression. She did, however, take his hand as if to tell him that she did know why he really made his jokes. They were silent for a while, until Calypso spoke again, this time more seriously.

“I’ve been told that some of my sisters are there.” She nodded towards the stars. “Do you think they’d be proud of me if they saw me right now?”

“You know what? I think they’d be happy for you. You got your freedom after all those years. And you’re not alone anymore.”

“Yeah. You are right.” Calypso smiled, bringing Leo’s machine oily hand on her lips, not caring about the dirt. “Hey, I have a question.”

“Ask ahead, Sunshine.”

“When we go back to Camp Half-Blood, will you teach me to play Mario Kart? I’d hate to lose again.”

“Why of course, Queen of Ogygia, the Mario Kart Master is at your service!” Leo attempted making a bowing gesture while lying, making Calypso laugh again. Maybe things would really be great with him helping her, she thought. He certainly would be making it interesting.


End file.
